It was around two in the afternoon. The day had dragged on for quite a while, but that always happened when every squid was hyped for Splatfest. No one could wait to fight for their respective teams. Callie and Marie were heading back to their apartment in Flounder Heights and going back home after they had received texts from whom they thought was Maize, telling them that Splatfest was safe now.
"Today has been… interesting," Callie could only say. They had tried talking to their close friend, but had never heard back from him after the first texts they received from him. They were both entering into the elevator. The Squid Sisters could not deny the unusual feeling with how simple that mission was to solve, but learning that Maize was married made today even stranger.
"Yeah, I'll say. I'm just amazed at the things that squid will do for a promise," Marie admitted, finding Maize's strong commitment for his promises insane at this point. Allowing an open marriage when he was not happy in said marriage to begin with seemed crazy to keep going, just because of a promise.
"He wouldn't be Maize if he didn't make promises," the black inkling reminded, having seen a lot of the promises their friend had made in the last few months. He was quite reliable when it came to his words; always out to help others before himself. He was the perfect agent for the Special Squid Services website. He proved that after the three of them had rescued the great zapfish.
"Now if only he wasn't so cheesy," Marie snickered while they were riding the elevator up to their floor. The two could not deny that they would not be the same if Maize had not appeared in their lives. Someone who was like a great little brother with a grand moral compass to boot, but his past was something none of them had any real idea of, since the yellow squid himself tried to avoid talking of his personal history for the most part. The two arrived to their apartment a short time later.
"Grandpa! We're home," Callie called out, seeing the old squid resting in the chair and reading a book.
"Oh hey, squiddos! Did you turn up anything?" the elderly inkling inquired. Callie had a bright smile.
"The Splatfest is good to go! It was just a prank after all" Callie happily informed their grandsquid. Marie still seemed uneasy. Although Maize had texted them that everything was now fine, at the same time her nerves were still unable to relax.
"Ah, you squids… doing me proud," he hummed, glad that the three agents had been doing great. All of these tasks had been going well, and with the website still being praised, they made him really proud. Marie went off to change out of her disguise. The Splatfest was going to begin within three hours and they had to get ready.
"Where's Bondi?" Agent 1 asked. Her grandfather pointed her toward the other room, having enjoyed watching over his own great-grandson.
"He's just lying down for a nap. You got a real content one there, Callie. Now if only you had been like that when you were growing up," Captain Cuttlefish groaned at the memories. Callie blushed, aware she had not exactly the calmest first few years of her life. Some of the old video tapes her family had recorded from her younger age embarrassed her immensely. The Squid Sister headed to the nursery to check up on her son.
"This Splatfest is going to be the best. But I really need to do something nice for Maize," Callie thought to herself. Each Splatfest was pretty great in every way, but she wanted to show some way to thank Maize for helping her get this squishie and making her feel all the more fulfilled in her life, though she still had to work on getting her driver's license sometime. She had failed that five times so far.
"Aw…" Callie said upon looking into the crib. She saw Bondi slumbering peacefully, his head on a pillow. Beside him however was something she recognized, an all too familiar baby zapfish doll stitched together from patches with a small hat that was similar to Captain Cuttlefish's atop its head. The mother pulled out her cellphone and took a picture, aware that her grandsquid had made the doll from scratch like he always did. It brought up a lot of fond memories. She immediately sent the cute image to her friends. Shortly after, Callie left the nursery to start getting ready for the Splatfest as well.
"My head… what happened…?" groaned Maize. His eyes opened moments after that horrid encounter at the cheap mall. He began to look around, his head hurting already. He noticed that his glasses were not on his face, but from what he could tell, he was in some rundown abandoned building, judging by the horridly damaged paint on the wall, the long crack in the ceiling, and that he felt like he was going to fall through the floor at any second. He tried to move a muscle, but his arms and legs were bound, as well as his tentacle hair, so turning into his squid form was not an option to break out of the bindings easily.
"Great. Tied up again," Maize sighed in irritation. This was the third time he had been tied up this securely in his entire life, only this time it was not to play a game or for some Halloween prank gone wrong.
"Good. You're awake," he heard, trying to turn his head to view where the voice came from.
"Erm… I'm not an owl!" Maize growled. It felt like he was being toyed with. He at least now could see a clock however that read four in the afternoon. He had been unconscious for quite some time.
"Oh, my apologies. That's no way to treat a guest," he saw someone step around in front of his face. He was somewhat intimidated by the inkling he saw standing before him. It was a squid with green eyes, and red tentacle hair that were short in size and done into a way that they covered one of his eyes. He was wearing a fedora that was orange with a black checker pattern to it and a red trench coat that dangled carelessly to the floor.
"Great. So you're the crazy kraken that choked me?" Maize retorted, the red inkling bending over, their faces nearing each other.
"Crazy kraken? Huh, that's a new one. I'm Cornell the Third. A pleasure to meet you, Maize," Cornell introduced himself. For being a kidnapper, he was oddly very civilized, if he wasn't just being taunting. If the yellow squid was just a bit closer, he would have sunk his sharp teeth into the other inkling's face.
"Wait, how did you know my name?" Maize questioned, finding this slightly scarier. The red inkling presented the cellphone that he had stolen.
"You'd be amazed by how much a phone can tell you, like how your phone tells me you have squids curious if you're alright. But don't worry, I don't want to hurt anyone if I can help it," Cornell explained. Maize's sore throat begged to differ at the red squid's claim for disliking violence.
"Oh, well sorry for not being so happy with that, when my throat has bruises all over it!" Maize angrily stomped, moving in the wooden chair somewhat. Cornell pulled out a syringe and plunged it into the yellow inkling's neck. His eyes went wide, feeling the sharp needle sink into his neck.
"I guess I am an even worse host than I originally thought. I said you'd wake up calm, relaxed and happy, after all," Cornell began to push the plunger of the syringe, watching the liquid within course into the yellow squid's body before he removed it. Maize began to instantly feel his body begin to forcibly relax. He was feeling happy, and everything began to feel so quiet that he could hear his own steady heartbeat.
"Wh… wha…" Maize could not speak. This was horrifying to him. Whatever strange medication he had just been forcibly injected with, it was making his body relax and make him feel overjoyed, but his brain on the other hand was screaming and begging for this to stop. His mind was not able to rest, if anything. This just made it even more panicked. His body was fighting his mind with force. It took a lot of focus to even get his fingers to respond.
"You see, my grandsquid originally worked as a medical specialist in the great turf wars. You know, the very thing that seems to have been forgotten by nearly all inklings alive," Cornell started talking. At this point, Maize could only keep an intense angry glare on the red inkling. He wondered if this is what DJ Octavio felt like, because he felt in quite the similar situation right now, just lacking the snow globe prison. The great turf war was very old, and of course, not many inklings knew of it. Captain Cuttlefish was a part of it and had shared many tales of the fight between octarians and inklings. The great turf war was a huge fight for the leftover parts of land since the ocean had risen quite a lot and flooded the world. But since then more land had turned up, not just beyond Octo Valley but all over the world. It certainly was odd, but not yet explored either.
"He helped a lot of inklings with this serum, just at a lot smaller doses. I gave you about ten units in that one shot, but one unit alone can take away all the pain from… say, someone that had all their teeth busted," the red squid spoke more before he reached a hand down and poked Maize's forehead, making him seemingly even more infuriated.
"There was nothing but promise of a well secured life after the great turf war was over. And guess what? One fool stole a case during one of the first ever Splatfests and wound up getting two squids killed. The next thing I know, gramps is getting two life sentences, and I'm the last one left with the notes on how to create more of this serum," Cornell continued his long explanation, twirling the syringe carelessly around before licking the needle, before he rested it down on one of the many poor looking furniture pieces.
"But… if that Splatfest never happened, if everyone wasn't so excited, security would not have been relaxed, and that one idiot would not have gotten their tentacles on any of the medicine. That's what grandpa told me during one of the last times I could ever visit him," he finished his rambling to the almost lifeless puppet he had tied up. Maize was trying to do his best to understand this, but from what he could gather, this red inkling was blaming Splatfest for a crime that had occurred conveniently at the same time. He felt sorry that his grandsquid was no longer alive, but if he could right now, he would be beating Cornell into a puddle of ink.
"So I have acquired some help to make sure no one enjoys this Splatfest, and never want to do another one after it," the red inkling chuckled, pulling out Maize's cellphone before resting it in his lap.
"Like I said, you should enjoy this calm and relaxing time while you have it in your system. And don't worry… you aren't going to be alone," Cornell put a hand on Maize's head. That just slowly angered him further. He turned his head so he was looking right. He found another inkling there who he recognized easily. It was Onyx, the chief of security of the Tentatek Corporation, whom had been captured hours ago, and he seemed to be suffering from similar side effects from the drugs. Maize suddenly felt worried about Aero's safety. If the best security guard had been captured, what would become of Aero?
"Well, take care. I have a lot I need to start getting ready with. Take care, my friend, and do not worry. I promise you'll be alright," Cornell hummed, beginning to walk away, the door to the horrible room slamming shut behind him. All Maize could do was sit there, numb, his mind processing what to do. He had no idea how he was going to get out of this, and he had to help Onyx, too, even if he hated him with a passion. The sun was beginning to set, and Splatfest was soon to begin. A fun celebration for all squids was about to be ruined, and Maize steadfastly refused to allow it to happen.